Is McDonald’s better than In-N-Out?

When you talk about people’s favorite fast-food brands, there’s going to be some controversy. I learned that the hard way a few years ago when I ranked French fries, and I’m learning it again now with reader feedback from my official fast-food burger power rankings, which we published last week.

I’m Lucas Kwan Peterson, a columnist for the Food section, and I’ll be assuming newsletter duties this week to discuss a few things about my burger power rankings, and also the power rankings generally.

What’s the old quote? “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”?

In the case of power rankings, a column I’ve been writing for years, it’s closer to “pleasing none of the people most of the time.” People are very attached to their brands — fast food, cereal, Girl Scout cookies, ramen, even Halloween candy. And not giving proper deference to a beloved brand can seem like a personal attack. But I love the exchanges that result from these power rankings — even the angrier ones — because it starts an impassioned dialogue about the foods we feel strongly about.

I’ll excerpt a few reader emails and tweets to break down a few of this recent piece’s more contentious aspects.

Fatburger was founded in South Los Angeles 75 years ago.

(Los Angeles Times)

It was nice to see my No. 1 pick, Fatburger, accepted by many.

“I agree 100% with your pick of Fatburger as a number one burger,” one reader emailed. “Fatburger is and has always been the hands down best,” another person tweeted at me. “Fatburger really is the GOAT and I feel like very underrated in the regional burger wars!” tweeted a different person.

The agreement was certainly not unanimous, though. “Your opinion sucks, and the UNpopularity [reader’s emphasis] of your idiotic choice of Fatburger for best burger is ridiculous, based on popularity alone!” one reader emailed me. To which I can only say: It’s a burger ranking, not a popularity contest [emphasis mine].

There will always be an In-N-Out argument in any California fast-food debate, and this was no exception:

“All credibility is lost when you have McDonalds ranked #4 and Carl’s Jr. ranked #2 in this list. Both ahead of In-N-Out?” tweeted one person, who was not alone in wondering why (1) I didn’t put In-N-Out higher and (2) I placed McDonald’s above it.

My response is to say that In-N-Out makes a fine burger: It’s No. 5 on the list! The Double-Double provides good value and is undeniably a California burger icon. But it’s also overrated, and these things are not mutually exclusive. I know it. You know it. My esteemed colleague Gustavo Arellano knows it.

As for the No. 4 placement of McDonald’s, I’ll simply repeat what I said in the article. This isn’t about the best burger, period, it’s about the best fast-food burger. And McDonald’s pioneered the model. Unlike some other chains, it keeps its burger menu fairly simple and isn’t constantly rotating novelty burgers in and out. And it’s arguably the most successful restaurant in the history of the universe. How do you argue with that?

Regarding the topic of how I selected the 23 different chains, one reader emailed me:

“BRAH! This is So Cal. If you haven’t noticed. Maybe your not from around these parts but there’s a place called The Original Tommy’s Burgers whose reputation is renowned (like it or disgusted by it) not even in the top twenty three?” [sic]

This person was not the only one who took umbrage at the omission of Original Tommy’s, a local institution known for its sloppy chili cheese creations. But Original Tommy’s has only 33 stores, most of which you’ll find in and around L.A. My goal was to primarily rank large, national fast food chains in this piece, so Original Tommy’s, unfortunately, had too small a footprint.

I left out many regional chains in this piece, but it was great to see people chime in with their personal favorites: New Mexico-based Blake’s Lotaburger, North Carolina-based Cook Out, Oklahoma-based Braum’s and Pacific Northwest favorite Burgerville, to name just a few.

As always, thanks for reading and thanks for the messages. If you’d like to send me any further thoughts on this or other rankings I’ve done (please keep it civil), you can email me at lucas.peterson@latimes.com.

Other stories this week

— If you’re looking for a chocolate chip cookie recipe, Julie Giuffrida has assembled nine of them. Why not try making them all and pick your favorite?

— Jenn Harris is exploring seafood, seafood and more seafood in her latest list of recommendations, which includes an elaborate seafood tower.

— Speaking of seafood, Stephanie Breijo has the latest on Ricky’s Fish Tacos, which recently announced it would be leaving Los Angeles. Make sure to go have a taco and say goodbye!

— And did you hear? The 101 Best Restaurants of L.A. live event, 2022 edition, is back again this Dec. 6. Our team announced the event, and early-bird discount tickets almost immediately sold out. Sweet!

Mariscos Jalisco is one of the great taco trucks in Los Angeles — will it make the list of best restaurants again this year? Only Bill Addison knows.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)